democracycellproject

Crossing the Boundaries of Change

Last night I went to see Rhodessa Jones' piece "The Love Project."

Bold and sassy, the performance artist struts and sings and dances and shares stories of risk and change. Perhaps the best moment is a story she shared about an adventure she and her partner Idris Ackamoor had back in 1989:

They were on a train from Graz, Austria to Munich, in a compartment with tons of luggage around, when a family of dark-skinned folks walked by. It turned out that the family was Albanian, and what they were seeking was sanctuary -- a place to hide so that they could escape to Germany, and freedom.

The compartment was small and the luggage was excessive. But Rhodessa described the moment of reckoning, when the faces and voices of Dr. King and Gandhi and Harriet Tubman and all the others who have gone before said to her, "How can you NOT?"

And so she and Idris allowed the family to travel under the beds, behind the luggage, while Idris stood in the doorway of the compartment with his saxophone, looking like the famous jazzman without a care in the world...

And a family disappeared into the Munich night air, to freedom.

***

What must happen to us to truly "be the change we wish we see"?

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Putting the Heat on Lomborg -- UPDATED

First they said global warming wasn't happening at all. When the evidence got too overwhelming, they said global warming was happening, but that human beings had nothing to do with it. But a growing body of evidence washed this position away too.

Now we've got the 3rd generation of deniers, as packaged in a new book, Cool It: A Skeptical Environmentalist Looks at Global Warming by Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg.

I'm launching a new web site today that takes on Lomborg's arguments--Putting the Heat on Lomborg--and I'd love for you to come over, learn more about why Lomborg's book is such a threat to stopping climate change, and just put the website through its paces.

Lomborg admits that global warming is happening, and that humans have something to do with it, but that it will cost more than it's worth to stop climate change, and it might even be a good thing. Register and log in and leave a question, a comment, or a website you like that deals with climate change.

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Taking the Bait in Iraq

What does it take to get you to pick up something off the sidewalk?

Money does it for me--I'll even go after that lucky penny. And I'll stop for any book that still has a cover on it and isn't completely water-logged from being out in the rain.

There's always a certain little burst of joy when I find something unclaimed on the ground, a little ray of fortune bursting through whatever clouds there might be that day.

Things are a little different in Iraq, according to a story in yesterday's Washington Post. On the streets of Iraq, if you happen to pick up the wrong thing lying on the ground, you get a little "kicker"--a high-powered sniper bullet in the head.

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Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Blackwater (& Military Contractors) But Were Afraid to Ask

Blackwater has been in the news once again, this time because of questionable circumstances in an event which resulted in death and wounding of civilians. In more recent news, they are also suspected of arms smuggling, which they are denying. This story has grown astronomically over the weekend, to where it is looking more like a crisis situation between Iraq and the US. Perhaps now the public will take more notice of the whole concept of private security contracting and whether there is oversight.

I first heard of Blackwater, like many people, when four of their members were ambushed in Fallujah and their corpses were dragged through the streets, then hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. I had also heard about Dyncorp, with members alleged to have been involved in rapes in Kosovo with no legal way to prosecute them, and that they were from Texas with conservative government ties. Prior to that, I had known about "mercenaries" or "soldiers of fortune" and generally thought of them as macho rightwing adventures with a thirst for blood. They are also known as "cowboys" or "hired guns."

More curious than ever, knowing that these contractors remain in Iraq in huge numbers yet are seldom mentioned when there is talk of a drawdown in forces in Iraq, I solicited questions from friends via email, and we came up with some basics. The links we collected are at the bottom of the thread and there will be many more by the time this is published.

Who are Blackwater?
They are the world's most powerful mercenary firm, and growing fast. They are a private army, a private military company, called "mercenaries" by some. They are paid for with tax dollars. On their website, their Vision is: To support security, peace, freedom, and democracy everywhere.

Who founded Blackwater?
Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist megamillionaire ex-Navy SEAL named Erik Prince. He is hereditarily wealthy and his family bankrolls right-wing causes. They are based in the wilderness of North Carolina, named Blackwater because of the region they are based in.

(keep reading for more)

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Traitors and the Congress Members Who Love Them

The American store is being quietly robbed by a bunch of slick, pinky-ring wearing lobbyists and corporate hacks, and Congress doesn't give a damn. In fact, they're holding the door open and driving the getaway car.

Glenn Greenwald has written a great article for Salon on the proposed legislation that will wipe the slate clean for any telecom companies that helped the government spy illegally on U.S. citizens. Newsweek also reported on this pending legislation.

If you've got a strong stomach, you can read the Salon article here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/22/telecom_immunity/index.html

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Contingencies

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
William O. Douglas

[The above was the opening of FEAR UP: Stories from Baghdad and Guanatanamo.]

When George Bush was elected in 2000, who among us would have said that seven years hence that we would be looking at the loss of civil liberties and a terrible war? Who would have predicted that the Congress would have given him the same power Adolf Hitler had: to round up "enemy combatants", as defined by him?

So often, people say "Well, I knew." But, of course no one did. All we can do is look at historical patterns and project ahead based on past experiences.

My friend Linda and I have played a kind of game over the past year: What year are we in? Is it 1932? 1933? The other night we decided it is 1935, the year the Nuremberg Laws were passed. Perhaps this is hyperbole, but how will we know, except when we look back?

This led to a discussion about whether or people in 1935 understood that 1936 was coming. The Berlin Olympics' focus on Hitler and German glory may have been hoped for, but did anyone understand what the price of German glory might be? They could not have predicted Kristallnacht, in 1938, surely.

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What Moves Us?

Busy week; lots of activities and struggles, and moments of joy, and fears, and plans made, changed, remade...

And you?

I've been thinking and talking about "the movement", especially in light of last week's "march", this week's arrests, and the MoveOn debacle of yesterday. So here are my questions for a Friday discussion:

Is there a peace and justice MOVEMENT?

Is it actually MOVING?

Are you MOVED by anything the MOVEMENT has done?

What is the engine for the MOVEMENT?

What would MOVE you to action?

Do you ever think about MOVING on?

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Jena 6 March

[Image of Dr. Martin Luther King]

Here's a link to CNN's fairly extensive coverage of the protest march in Jena, Louisiana today.

I met one of the attorneys for the Jena 6 at Yearly Kos. She was part of a panel called Rebuilding New Orleans, but she wanted to speak about the Jena 6, and we were grateful she did. She paid her own way to come and speak to us and ask for our help in getting this story out and pushing it to the media.

It's shocking to see the pockets of powerful and ugly bigotry that still exist in our country, and that they are still well supported by the structures of local law enforcement and government in areas like Jena, Louisiana.

When I was at Yearly Kos in the beginning of August, this story was far from well known. Now there's a huge protest going on there all day.

This story is another example of how the power of people and the blog community, can serve to shine a bright light on an injustice, and push the media to cover it.

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The House of Wisdom

First this:

Now this:

The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.

Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "House of Wisdom."

The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a moderate doctrine," Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling "tears apart" the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as "Let's kill innocents," and helps to "bring some of the edge off" the detainees, he said.

[...]

Stone said his staff conducts polygraph tests for detainees who promise to change after undergoing the religious training program. "We were trying to figure out if they're messing with us. . . . You're not talking about radicals going to choirboys." But he also added that they're succeeding in countering extremists in the facilities. "We're busting them down, we're making whole moderate compounds that didn't exist before."

Stone described a sort of religious insurgency that occurred at one detention facility on Sept. 2. "We had a compound of moderates for the first time overtake . . . extremists. It's never happened before. Found them, identified them, threw them up against the fence and shaved their frickin' beards off of them. . . . I mean, that is historic."

I see some people paid attention in Spanish History class.

I'm sure this will all work out really, really well this time.

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Buckets of Blood

Last week I wrote about the problems that the antiwar movement has had in generating sustained pressure on members of Congress, citing a story by a Washington Post reporter who traveled around Georgia for three days over the August recess with Republican Senator Jimmy Isaacson and did hear a single comment critical of the war.

In today's Post, there is a story of a different kind, about a recent campaign that worked, paid for by the health insurance industry, and based on mobilizing people at the grassroots. The campaign was led by Karen M. Ignagni.

Ignagni's group, with the help of its members, has been building a list of senior citizen activists since 1999. Known as the Coalition for Medicare Choices, the network is managed by association employees who regularly keep in touch with the seniors who sign up and spur them to action when they are needed.

The network is currently 400,000 strong. In recent months, every senator and nearly 100 congressmen were contacted by multiple seniors in the system. Over the August recess alone, the association clocked about 20,000 calls to congressional offices.

Ignagni supplemented this deluge with a national advertising campaign. Its targeted TV commercials were designed to thank some lawmakers for supporting the industry's position and to remind others who are on the fence that seniors would not be happy if Medicare Advantage were trimmed.

The association also bought newspaper ads to praise the overall legislation, which at its heart expands the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The ad pointedly recommended the Senate's version, which pays for the SCHIP expansion with an increase in tobacco taxes, not a cut in Medicare Advantage.

The effect has been impressive. Congressional aides say they have heard the association's point of view even above the din created by two of Washington's most powerful interests: the American Medical Association and AARP.

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Travel As A Political Act

Rick Steves is a local travel guru who has a PBS series called "Europe Through the Backdoor." He started as a backpacker and advocates budget travel as a way to be "close to the ground" and meet real people, rather than traveling in a four-star bubble lacking in real local character. He also feels that we sometimes can better understand our own country and culture after leaving it. He shares examples of the value of travel broadening your perspective and how important in a post-9/11 world that is, especially when we live in a society that's using fear as a tactic to confuse us, and powerful people profit from our confusion.

Rick opened up his travel agency (which looks like a miniature train station) to phone callers for progressive candidates during the last election, and he is outspoken in his views that we should not be "Ugly Americans," either personally or collectively, through our behavior and policies nor should we insulate ourselves.

I have excerpted sections from an interview with Rick which appeared in last week's Seattle Times as Rick was preparing to speak at Town Hall here.

RS: When I talk about travel as a political act I'm talking about how travel can change your perspective in a way that when you get home, all of a sudden you're more difficult to con...I'm saying when you travel, you find smart people who would not trade passports. You have people who are ethnocentric like you and I are, but they find other truths to be self-evident and God-given.

..Slow service is good service, instead of fast service is good service. Tolerance of alternative lifestyles. I think in Europe they've learned that society has to make a choice: you can tolerate more alternative lifestyles or you can build more prisons. And they always remind me how good we are at incarceration. We're four percent of the planet with more than a quarter of its prisoners.

If you're traveling in India, don't assume you know what pain and love and the value of time is. If you're a famous rock star, don't hang a baby out the window in Berlin. When Americans go to the Brandenburg Gate ... it frustrates those guides, because all they want to know is "Which balcony did Michael Jackson hang his baby out on?"

MR: Don't you think the teen beauty-pageant finalist's incoherent answer about why Americans can't find America on a map says all we need to know about our ignorance of the rest of the world?

RS: (Laughs.) I love that, too. That clip would not surprise people -- not even in Europe, in the developing world. It's not a fair example of an American, but you can make a case that we think we're a hub and everything relates to us. And the rest of the world interacts with each other, with or without America, which I think is real interesting. One of the most poignant moments I had last year was in Morocco, looking at a beautiful square in Tangier realizing these are successful affluent people going places and they neither emulate America or dislike America. America doesn't even enter into their awareness. And I thought that's a beautiful thing.

MR: You're suggesting actually learning about a culture before invading it? I mean traveling to it.

RS: Yeah, I'm saying if everybody traveled before they could vote, we would not be outvoted in the United Nations routinely 130 to 4. We would not go into wars alone. We would work better with the rest of the planet.

(more interview and photos below)

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The Politics of Scooby Doo

I don't know why I still do it... but I still do. On some level, it's the mental equivalent of being a self-mutilator. But I still do it. I watch the Today Show in the morning while I'm having coffee.

And thus my Friday morning began with what I am sure resulted in a major blood pressure increase, and death-defying proximity to a cerebral aneurism. Meredith Viera parsing out for the idiot-nation the subtle nuanced interpretation of Mr. Bush's pointless remarks Thursday evening (spewed no doubt to an utterly disinterested nation - strangely, haven't seen the Nielsen numbers on this).

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The Image

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (pronounced Kee-veen O Cree-awn) is an Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of drawings and paintings and features local scenes as well as images from his travels to the west of Ireland and abroad. His social and political themes range from the local to the global.

Yesterday, I asked if a film can change people's minds. The question is in line with conversations going on on an email list I am on, as well as Christy's comments lately on her painting. Today, I want to extend the question:

Does art lead us or reflect our current views?

Caoimhghin O Croidheain is an Irish artist who responded to a comment from another linguistic analyst:

The first comment:
"But it is much harder, it seems to me, for art to be able to offer social critique - that is, criticisms of the systems of social power and resultant structured social inequalities."

Caoimhghin O Croidheain responded:

Some Notes on Political Art

What is political art? What makes art political?

It is very difficult to define political art. Views on what makes art political can range from the idea that all art is political (i.e. it either implicitly supports or explicitly opposes the status quo) to pointing out, for example, the obviously political murals on walls around Belfast. As a way of narrowing the former and broadening the latter I suggest here a view of political art that uses three categories:

Portrayal, Promotion, or Projection.

Portrayal

In the first category 'Portrayal' covers art that says 'this is what happens if, is happening now or happened in the past'. This kind of art describes events or situations that people find themselves in as a result of social or political structures. Any political perspective is implicit in the art but is also free-floating. For example, a painting of a white man whipping black slaves describes a particular situation where the black man may say, 'Yes! That is how we are treated!' yet the slave-owner may say, 'Yes! That is the way to treat them!' Thus both sides can see the confirmation of their point of view in the work of art.

For the slaves, the ultimate effect of such art may be positive or negative. In a positive sense it may create group awareness and solidarity, or, in a negative sense, it could also consolidate inertia, a feeling that nothing can be done to change the situation. The art styles or movements of Realism, Social Realism and Naturalism could fit into the category of 'Portrayal'.

Promotion

In the second category of 'Promotion' ways and means towards the resolution of the problem are presented. That is, a particular aspect of an event is highlighted over other aspects. This aspect would concentrate on the people or groups who are actively struggling to change the situation in which they find themselves.

Thus one view of an event, that which would encourage others or strengthen an activism already present, is promoted over images of the event that may have the opposite effect. In this case, the politics of representation takes precedence over the representation of politics.

Unlike 'Portrayal', this type of art is harder to manipulate from an opposing point of view. The politics is generally explicit and can have a positive inspirational effect. The art styles or movements of Socialist Realism and 'Political Art' (e.g. murals, banners, posters etc.) and Social Realism to a certain extent could fit into the category of 'Promotion'.

Projection

In the third and last category 'Projection' refers to art that takes disparate elements and then recombines them to form a new image. It is an art which says 'This is what could happen or could be if ...'. Art styles or movements such as Surrealism, collage, utopian or visionary images would fit into this category. Such speculative art can have a positive effect of providing inspiration by suggesting ideas that are outside one's usual ways of thinking, and can be implicitly or explicitly political.

For example, a picture showing the Rock of Cashel (ancient fortress in Co. Tipperary, Ireland) with a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train speeding by may be a jarring conjunction of images but suggests the possibility of a super fast transport system in Ireland. Therefore it has social and economic implications for the Irish State which in turn makes it implicitly political.

However, like in the first category Portrayal, opposing political viewpoints can claim this image for their vision of the future. The same scene would be explicitly political though, if, for example, 'Workers of the world unite' was written on the side of the Shinkansen.

Thus it can be seen from the above categories that the representation of particular actions or the inclusion of particular types of text ties an image down to an explicitly political perspective. The past, present and future, with some overlapping, are also covered in this way of seeing or defining political art.

*****

What do you think about the artifacts of the peace and justice movement? Are the activities: music, poetry, docu-drama, film, etc. helping? Portraying? Promoting? Projecting?

What have you read, created, or experienced lately and how did it help?

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DOCUMENTING

I am at the annual meeting I always go to in September; this year in St. Petersburg, Florida. The first day is always catching up with colleagues: who is here, who is ill, who died, who is new...life cycles.

So I have not kept up with the news cycle in the past 24 hours. OK, let's face it, I am Bush-avoidant right now.

However, in the past week, we did see a documentary I want to share with you:

WAR MADE EASY.

Along with the others we have seen recently, it is a powerful reminder of why we all must continue to educate, activate, and empower those who are new to truths.

I plan to host a movie night with friends, and to invite a few who need to think a little more deeply about what is happening to our democracy now. Please consider doing the same; all of the following are available in the theatres or at Netflix. The trailers alone are worth your time:

WHY WE FIGHT

THE GROUND TRUTH

THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO

UNCOVERED: THE ROAD TO IRAQ

THE VALLEY OF ELAH

NO END IN SIGHT

Can a movie change an opinion? Let's find out...

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Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

[Work is pastels on paper, titled, Mindless, by David Ross]

Suggested title for this week's news? I vote for "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics". But not necessarily in that order.

We started out the weeks with the lying statistics of the dog and pony show known as "The Petraeus Report", which was not so much a report, as the facts on Iraq getting so intense a public massaging, it should be R rated. R for ridiculous.

So much for the statistics part.

We will end the week with the White House version of this report delivered to Congress on Saturday, and the President delivering his fifteen millionth version of a "Stay the Course" speech this evening.

When watching the speech, it might be helpful to print out the speech from January in which he promised all of the wonderful things the surge was supposed to do, none of which actually happened. Just for comparison. He will also reveal that the 30,000 troops that have to go next spring forced by troop rotation, will still be having to go home next spring. He will take credit for this as proof positive that the surge is working. So well, in fact, that it's time to stop doing what was sucessful. And then he will take credit for the sun rising in the east.

So much for the damn lies part.

And today brings us the lies. Courtesy of Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, and Think Progress:

Earlier this week, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell claimed the new expansive FISA legislation passed by Congress prior to the August recess  the so-called Protect America Act  had helped to thwart an alleged terror plot in Germany.

A government official later told the New York Times that McConnell was wrong, and that the intelligence had been collected under the old FISA law which required warrants. A chorus of House Democrats immediately raised concerns about McConnells claims.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) demanded McConnell back up his sworn statement. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) said the Protect America Act played no role in uncovering the recent German terrorist plot. House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes urge McConnell to issue a public statement immediately correcting his remarks.

In a statement released today, McConnell unapologetically acknowledged he lied to the Senate:

During the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on September 10, 2007, I discussed the critical importance to our national security of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the recent amendments to FISA made by the Protect America Act. The Protect America Act was urgently needed by our intelligence professionals to close critical gaps in our capabilities and permit them to more readily follow terrorist threats, such as the plot uncovered in Germany. However, information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act.

Read the statement here. McConnell would be well-advised to officially correct his testimony.

Yep, it's all about Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.

But,when I really stop to think about it, "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics", doesn't merely sum up the week's events, it really sums up the entirety of the Bush administration. It's all just been long stretches of lies and damn lies, punctuated with a period of massaged statistics thrown in.

This week's production just highlights the pattern.

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